A New Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer Channel Selection and Assessment of Its Impact on Met Office NWP Forecasts

A new set of Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer （IASI） channels was re-selected from 314 EUMETSAT channels. In selecting channels, we calculated the impact of the individually added channel on the improvement in the analysis outputs from a one-dimensional variational analysis （1D-Var） for the Unified Model （UM） data assimilation system at the Met Office, using the channel score index （CSI） as a figure of merit. Then, 200 channels were selected in order by counting each individual channel＇s CSI contribution. Compared with the operationally used 183 channels for the UM at the Met Office, the new set shares 149 channels, while the other 51 channels are new. Also examined is the selection from the entropy reduction method with the same 1D-Var approach, Results suggest that channel selection can be made in a more objective fashion using the proposed CSI method. This is because the most important channels can be selected across the whole IASI observation spectrum. In the experimental trial runs using the UM global assimilation system, the new channels had an overall neutral impact in terms of improvement in forecasts, as compared with results from the operational channels. However, upper-tropospheric moist biases shown in the control run with operational channels were significantly reduced in the experimental trial with the newly selected channels. The reduction of moist biases was mainly due to the additional water vapor channels, which are sensitive to the upper-tropospheric water vapor.

Observational Study of Surface Wind along a Sloping Surface over Mountainous Terrain during Winter

The 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Pyeongchang, Korea, during February and March. We examined the near surface winds and wind gusts along the sloping surface at two outdoor venues in Pyeongchang during February and March using surface wind data. The outdoor venues are located in a complex, mountainous terrain, and hence the near-surface winds form intricate patterns due to the interplay between large-scale and locally forced winds. During February and March, the dominant wind at the ridge level is westerly; however, a significant wind direction change is ob- served along the sloping surface at the venues. The winds on the sloping surface are also influenced by thermal forcing, showing increased upslope flow during daytime. When neutral air flows over the hill, the windward and leeward flows show a significantly different behavior. A higher correlation of the wind speed between upper- and lower-level stations is shown in the windward region compared with the leeward region. The strong synoptic wind, small width of the ridge, and steep leeward ridge slope angle provide favorable conditions for flow separation at the leeward toot of the ridge. The gust factor increases with decreasing surface elevation and is larger during daytime than nighttime. A significantly large gust factor is also observed in the leeward region.

Erratum to:Observational Study of Surface Wind along a Sloping Surface over Mountainous Terrain during Winter

Erratum to:Lee,Y.-H.,G.Lee,S.Joo,and K.-D.Ahn,2018:Observational study of surface wind along a sloping surface over mountainous terrain during winter.Adv.Atmos.Sci.,35(3),276−284,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-017-7075-5.